Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says that when Iranians chant “death to America,” they don’t mean they want to kill Americans. Instead, he says, the slogan is a condemnation of American policy.

Rouhani explained the controversial chant to CBS’s Steve Kroft in an interview that will air on 60 Minutes on Sunday:

“This slogan that is chanted is not a slogan against the American people. Our people respect the American people. The Iranian people are not looking for war with any country, but at the same time the policies of the United States have been against the national interests of Iranian people. It’s understandable that people will demonstrate sensitivity to this issue. When the people rose up against the Shah, the U.S. aggressively supported the Shah until the last moments. In the eight year war with Iraq, the Americans supported Saddam. People will not forget these things. We cannot forget the past, but at the same time, our gaze must be towards the future.”

The interview was President Rouhani’s first with a Western journalist since the Iran deal was made in July. SOURCE

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Iran’s Rouhani Dodges Questions on US as ‘Great Satan,’ Cries of ‘Death to America’

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told “60 Minutes” in an interview aired Sunday that “Death to America” and “The Great Satan” are not terms aimed at the American people, but at the government it sees as not keeping its word.

In the interview, recorded last week in Tehran, Rouhani gave pleasant answers comparing opposition to this summer’s nuclear agreement in the United States and his own country. 

Opposition in Iran will fall in line because the public strongly favors the deal, Rouhani told correspondent Steve Kroft.
But Kroft pressed Rouhani on the fact that crowds, led by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamanei have continued chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” at Friday prayers even after the agreement was reached.

The slogan is not aimed at the American people, Rhouhani insisted. 

“Our people respect the American people. The Iranian people are not looking for war with any country,” he said. “But at the same time the policies of the United States have been against the national interests of Iranian people. It’s understandable that people will demonstrate sensitivity to this issue.”

He pointed to American support for the Shah and its backing of Iraq in Iran’s eight-year war with the country. 

“People will not forget these things. We cannot forget the past, but at the same time our gaze must be towards the future,” he said.

“If America puts the enmity aside, if it initiates good will, and if it compensates for the past, the future situation between the United States and Iran will change,” Rouhani said.

As for calling the United States the “Great Satan,” Rouhani said Satan refers to the power that tricks others and whose words do not match reality. 

“What I can say is that the U.S. has made many mistakes in the past regarding Iran, and must make up for those mistakes,” he said.

Rouhani said that Tehran and Washington “have taken the first steps” toward decreasing their enmity due to a landmark nuclear accord.

But Rouhani said that despite the nuclear agreement, “the distance, the disagreements, the lack of trust, will not go away soon

The United States and Iran have been at odds since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution. Deep differences remain over Middle East conflicts, as well as what Washington sees as Iran’s support for terrorism and poor human rights record.

What’s important is which direction we are heading?” Rouhani added. “Are we heading towards amplifying the enmity or decreasing this enmity? I believe we have taken the first steps towards decreasing this enmity.”

The nuclear accord reached in July between Iran and six world powers eases crippling sanctions on Iran in return for limits on its nuclear work.

The accord’s opponents in the U.S. Congress were unable to muster the votes to block it by last week’s legislative deadline for action.

Rouhani, who was interviewed in Tehran, expressed confidence that Iran’s parliament and Supreme National Security Council would likewise approve the accord.

“The majority of our people, in opinion polls, have a positive view of the agreement,” he said. “Institutions like the parliament and the Supreme National Security Council, are usually not far removed from public opinion and move in that direction.”

The powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, some of whose members have publicly criticized the deal, “will respect this agreement” once Iran approves it, Rouhani predicted.

The Iranian president, expected to travel to the United States next week for the U.N. General Assembly, suggested he would not oppose some sort of U.S.-Iran prisoner swap.

Iran is holding several Americans, including Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian, who has dual U.S. and Iranian citizenship. Iranian officials have said they want freedom for Iranians held in the United States, some of whom have been jailed on charges of circumventing U.S. sanctions on Tehran.

Asked if he would support a prisoner exchange, Rouhani told CBS: “I don’t particularly like the word exchange, but from a humanitarian perspective, if we can take a step, we must do it. The American side must take its own steps.”

In the Syrian conflict, Iran has backed President Bashar Assad, and Rouhani said Assad should stay in power at least until Islamic State militants are defeated. “How can we fight the terrorists without the government staying?” he asked. SOURCE
 

Zero Risk of Terrorism from Refugees? ISIS Plans to Unleash the Plague and Cause the “Black Death”

Video two: The Black Death arrived in Europe by sea in October 1347 when 12 Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina after a long journey through the Black Sea. The people who gathered on the docks to greet the ships were met with a horrifying surprise: Most of the sailors aboard the ships were dead, and those who were still alive were gravely ill. They were overcome with fever, unable to keep food down and delirious from pain. Strangest of all, they were covered in mysterious black boils that oozed blood and pus and gave their illness its name: the “Black Death.” The Sicilian authorities hastily ordered the fleet of “death ships” out of the harbor, but it was too late: Over the next five years, the mysterious Black Death would kill more than 20 million people in Europe–almost one-third of the continent’s population.
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